The production of chemical products, chemical intermediates, monomers, and polymers is an important industry. The chemical industry supplies many of the raw materials and finished products that are in use today. Many of the components that are supplied by the chemical industry are produced using petroleum feedstocks as the initial source. Some of these components can be refined or otherwise purified directly from petroleum. Other components need to be subjected to further processes or chemical reactions to produce the desired products or intermediates.
With a growing world population, the demand for products produced by the chemical industry is increasing. This growing demand places a high burden on the petroleum feedstock, a non-renewable resource that is becoming increasingly costly to obtain due to diminishing resources.
A need exists to produce chemical products and chemical intermediates from resources other than petroleum. There have been attempts in the past to produce chemicals wherein at least part of the molecule is renewably resourced, i.e., is produced from non-petroleum or non-fossil carbon feedstock. Further, there is a need for polymers and materials derived from renewable resources. There is also a need for renewably sourced chemical products, chemical intermediates, monomers, and polymers containing nitrogen.
Lysine is an amino acid manufactured on very large scale by fermentation of sugars and other renewable carbon sources. Lysine and its derivatives, for example lysinol, are therefore potentially useful renewably resourced chemicals that are alternatives to nitrogen-containing, petroleum-derived chemicals.
Hence, there is a need for renewably sourced polymers derived from lysinol such as polyamide, polyimide, polyurea, polyurethane and lysinol-epoxy thermoset.